Nexus 6P at Rs 30,998: Is it a better deal than OnePlus 3T?

The OnePlus 3T is, without a doubt, the gold standard to beat at under Rs 30,000. The OnePlus 3T which is simply a faster OnePlus 3with a bigger battery (and consequently a ‘much’ better battery life) and more megapixels on-board the front camera, starts at Rs 29,999 for the base 64 gig model and goes all the way up to Rs 34,999 for the top-end 128 gig model. It’s a fantastic phone; there are no two ways about it. But, here’s a quick question. What if you can buy the Nexus 6P 64 gig model, at around the same price, at Rs 30,998 to be precise? Well, buying a phone just got a whole lot interesting.

I am not saying the OnePlus 3T can kill the Nexus 6P. I am also not saying that the Nexus 6P can kill the OnePlus 3T, for that matter. There are necessarily no winners and no losers here, for both the phones are neck to neck, in almost every sense of the word. It’s just that the Nexus 6P is a more expensive phone. On a regular day, it costs Rs 42,998, which is an enormous Rs 12,000 more than the OnePlus 3T. Ideally, it should be better, right? And it is. The phone is, at this point of time, available at Rs 30,998 on Flipkart . Moreover, there’s a further discount of up to Rs 20,000 on exchange, should you be looking for one. All in all, it’s a fabulous bargain. Take a look.

Design is subjective, but the Huawei-made Nexus 6P is arguably the better looking of the two. The phone has an all-metal body and a strategically placed glass element that encompasses its rear camera module. The careful amalgamation of glass and metal gives the Nexus 6P a distinct look and feel. It is a design that both the youth and those looking for some sophistication would equally (love and) appreciate. It is very original. Additionally, the Nexus 6P comes with an oleophobic coating atop which makes it resistant to smudge and fingerprints, to an extent. The OnePlus 3T, even though it has an all-metal body that screams premium from every nook and corner, isn’t exactly the most original smartphones in the world. It looks like an HTC phone. It is also slippery; no strike that, a lot slippery in comparison. Lastly, it does not include any oleophobic coating as well.

The Nexus 6P has an upper hand in display specifics and the resultant display output over the OnePlus 3T. The OnePlus 3T, to cut costs, decided to go with a standard 5.5-inch fullHD AMOLED panel with a 1920×1080 pixels resolution. The Nexus 6P, on the other hand, has a larger 5.7-inch screen and quad-HD AMOLED one (2560×1440 Pixels) at that. The difference in screen resolution may not seem much on paper (and usage) for most users, but the difference will most certainly be visible if they are into virtual reality. The Nexus 6P, because it has more pixels, is better catered for VR and Google’s Daydream project than the OnePlus 3T. Although, hardware constraints of the Nexus 6P may not give you the best Daydream experience in the longer run, at least, you know the phone can (will) support it.

The biggest USP of the Nexus 6P is its rear camera. It is brilliant. It is better than the OnePlus 3T. The Nexus 6P comes with a 12-megapixel – Sony-made IMX 377 sensor – rear camera assisted with laser autofocus and dual-LED (dual tone) flash. The phone also has a 6-piece lens with F2.0 aperture. Due to its good hardware – particularly the image sensor – the Nexus 6P captures images that have rich colours and lot of details. Also, the big sensor size means the Nexus 6P camera captures relatively more detail, more light and has potential to bring out better colours in images. The large image sensor also handles low light in a fantastic way. The OnePlus 3T, on the other hand, comes with a 16-megapixel — IMX298 image sensor — phase detection autofocus, f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. The small pixel size – of the image sensor — holds the OnePlus 3T back. Although the phone has Optical Image Stabilisation and Electronic image stabilisation, which to an extent assist in low-light photography (and blur-free videos) the results, particularly in tricky and low light aren’t that great especially in comparison to a phone like the Nexus 6P. The phone, however, captures respectable photos for its price in good light.

The OnePlus 3T ships with Android Marshmallow-based OxygenOS at a time when the Nexus 6P has already been updated to Android Nougat. It’s not surprising. OnePlus has had a shoddy track record, so far, as far as pushing out software updates is concerned. The OnePlus 3T will be updated to Android N sometime in December, alongside the OnePlus 3. The most glaring concern is whether or not the company will be able to offer timely software updates, in future, for the OnePlus 3T. In OnePlus’ defence, you can still flash custom ROMs on the OnePlus 3T without breaking the warranty. In the case of the Nexus phones, however, things are much clearer. Security updates are provided for three years from release or 18 months from when they leave the Google Store (whichever is longer). Ideally, every new Nexus phone is eligible for a ‘major’ update for at least two years from release date. Similar is the case with the Nexus 6P as well.

Lastly, the OnePlus 3T comes with a larger 3,400mAh battery in comparison to the OnePlus 3 and supports Dash (fast) charging. The Nexus 6P, however, comes with an even bigger battery (3,450mAh) with support for fast charging.

The Nexus 6P is a fantastic phone, overall, but there are a few things that hold it back in comparison to the OnePlus 3T:

The biggest upside of buying the OnePlus 3T is that you get top-notch hardware in line with the times. It comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor clubbed with 6 gigs of RAM. Secondly, the OnePlus 3T supports dualSIM, while the Nexus 6P is a singleSIM phone. Also, the OnePlus 3T should appeal to you more if you’re looking for a better selfie-shooter as it comes equipped with a 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

The most important thing to note, however, is that the Nexus 6P will reach end-of-life (EOL) in September 2017 which means Google will stop pushing out software (including security) updates for the phone rendering it as good as dead.